The Angel of Elydria (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 1) (26 page)

All right, just remember…he doesn’t know what I look like…and it looks as if he hasn’t noticed Simon’s here, so we’re okay,
she reassured herself, keeping her eyes fixed on Deimos and watching as he whispered into the ear of the black-haired woman. As he leaned, Penny saw that on the other side of Deimos sat the disfigured, dead-eyed man she had seen in the square of Dewthorne. Around his chalk-white neck was a metal collar attached to a chain, which a bald man on his right clutched. Penny’s lips quivered and she was already moving to alert Hector and Simon when something occurred to her.

Though it made her stomach twist with fear, she knew what she needed to do. Penny stared at her hands, trying to remember her evening practices with Simon as she stole his memories away one by one.

Deimos is here at this very moment, and completely unaware of me―Deimos who, for some reason, wants me dead—who started all of this―who knows why this is happening.

Perhaps the wine she’d downed inspired reckless bravery, but Penny had decided. She took another slow breath, trying to quell the powerful thudding in her chest. She shot a covert glance at Hector, craving his support, but knowing he would never allow her to go down there. She knew as soon as Simon got wind that Deimos was near, he would make a scene. This would have to be done alone.

Penny feigned interest in the performance as she formed a plan. Annette Deveaux stood in the middle of a faux thicket tinged a deep blue, fireflies floating around her as she sang a sorrowful song. Her face displayed such pure emotion and her voice was so clear and bell-like that Penny was distracted for a singular moment, captivated by her beauty and delicacy.

The Rune Pendant she had taken from her mother’s shop still hung around her neck and Penny touched it as she shut her eyes. Her most forceful inner-voice whispered to her.
You’ve never once been brave, have you? You’ve always been a coward. Just once, Penelope. Just once, be brave.

Opening her eyes again and clenching her fists, Penny rose from her seat with shaking legs.

“Where are you going?” Hector hissed, looking confused when Penny rose from her seat.

“Bathroom,” Penny whispered back.

Hector turned back toward the stage and Penny fought her way down the aisle, trying to be inconspicuous and silent. She spotted an empty chair behind the man with the metal collar and squirmed through the aisle to get to it. Once she’d sat down, she breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

With a rush of horror, Penny realized she could not reach Deimos from her seat. Her head swam as she tried to think of a solution. The disfigured man sat before her, his face slack and unfeeling, the missing eye covered with the sheet of glass fused onto his face. Up close, his features were nothing short of horrendous.

Simon said he saw this guy with Deimos on Earth…would he know the same things that Deimos knows?
She juggled her choices. There was only one shot at this, and even if she succeeded there was no telling if she would escape unscathed.

Penny shot a furtive glance downward, locating the chained man’s wrist dangling limp between the seats. With one final countdown, her hand shot forward, snaked between the seats, and grabbed the man around the wrist. His skin was like a corpse, and she willed herself to not let go as a wave of revulsion hit. Swallowing her fear, Penny braced herself against the flash of light that burst behind her eyes. Nothing followed. She gasped, the empty dream dissolving for a split second before she summoned it again. There was still only darkness.

Penny pulled away from the man’s wrist and leaned back into her chair with a thud. Terrified, she prepared for his inhuman face to turn toward her, trying not to imagine how his grotesque features would appear with outrage contorting them. She sat frozen, her arms stuck in an unnatural position for the longest minute of her entire life.

He did not move. He continued to stare off into the distance, motionless. Penny’s vision blurred and she remembered that she would have to breathe soon. She ignored the curious looks she was getting from the walrus-like man beside her. Annette’s song finished and Penny clapped with the rest of the audience, trying to organize her thoughts.

He’s got no memories?! Maybe I was doing it wrong?
Trying to keep her voice from trembling, she tapped Mr. Walrus on the shoulder and leaned up to his ear.

“Excuse me, sir, I’m so sorry. Would you mind switching seats with me? I
really
need to talk to him,” she said and pointed at Deimos, wishing she had even a scrap of Annette Deveaux’s acting talent. The man raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and stood to shift his corpulent body into the seat Penny had vacated. As he moved past her, Penny was shoved against the back of the seat of the bald man that held the chain in his hand. For a heart-stopping second, he turned around in his seat and glared back at her, his white-blue eyes filled with such wild anger that Penny stopped in her tracks, wondering if he had somehow figured her out. When he turned back around, Penny slid into the still-warm seat previously occupied by Mr. Walrus.

Catching her breath, Penny summoned her courage back. This was it. Her gaze locked onto the back of Deimos’ neck and his ponytail. She could not afford to miss.

Penny whipped her hand forward, her eyes fixed on her mark and her heart exploding with victorious relief as she felt the warm flesh of Deimos’s neck connect with the tips of her fingers. She didn’t allow him a second to realize what was going on as she focused on summoning an important memory and felt herself overtaken by the light and falling into Deimos’s past…

…Deimos sat on a regal-looking couch crafted of pink silk and dark wood. He was filled with a powerful sense of satisfaction―how could he ever have gotten so lucky? From where he sat, he could see the black-haired woman lounging against the wall of a richly decorated home, smoking her token cigarette and filling the drawing room with its heady fragrance. Beside him was his brother, bald and smiling his crooked grin. He was just as pleased as Deimos.

“You’re absolutely sure, Ms. Valentine?” Deimos spoke, his voice deep and serious with a hint of menace playing around his words. The black-haired woman smirked.

“Of course I’m sure, assuming what you said is true. It has
to be…how else could that little fool have gotten to where she is without it?” Valentine sneered, her green eyes burning in her head. Even with the blush of youth fading, her beauty was intimidating. Deimos’s gaze narrowed as his brother laughed a warped, high pitched giggle beside him, revealing a set of broken, yellowed teeth. Valentine shot him a look of disgust. Deimos gave his brother a warning glance and he relaxed back into a wicked smile.

“And you’re certain you’ll be able to get us to her discreetly? We cannot afford to be discovered.” Deimos tone was even, calculating. He turned to his brother, wrath splintering from his tongue. “We can’t have any more slip-ups―isn’t that right, Phobos?” Anger still smoldered in his chest. Phobos returned his gaze with an even more belligerent scowl.

Valentine took a long drag on her cigarette and blew it through her scarlet lips. “Who do you think I am, huh?” she spat, insulted.

“I don’t know who you think you are, but if a person like Annette Deveaux goes missing, I’m absolutely certain the blame is going to be set on someone…and if it’s us, I promise you the consequences will be severe,” Deimos hissed , his single eye narrowed to a slit. Valentine’s face showed a flare of panic that she deftly hid.

“Don’t you worry, no one will know.” She was humorless now, her apple-red lips pushed into a pout. “Just do what I say and she’ll be yours.”

“So we’ve reached an agreement then?” Deimos prompted.

Valentine’s lips parted as she considered, her emerald-bright eyes drifting in thought. “She will suffer? You swear it?” she asked with carnivorous hunger. Deimos was still, a low murmur of incredulity shivered through his heart at the cruelness of her intentions. He was certain they far bypassed his own.

“More than even you could imagine,” he said in a flat voice, and an indulgent smile split her fearsome beauty, warping it into something monstrous. Deimos stood and saw another pulse of fear in her face. It sent a flurry of gratification up and down his spine to see her frightened. “Don’t forget, now, you take orders from us. Because of what you know, you’ve fully committed yourself to this, and there is absolutely no backing out. We’ll be staying with you at all times to see that your loyalty does not waver, is that understood?”

“You’re the boss,” she conceded, shrugging a little as if to say she didn’t care.

Deimos laughed. “No, I’m not the boss, Valentine. You should know that by now,” he reminded her, thinking with dread of the one who dwelt alone in the dark of the palace, waiting for them to return―with Annette Deveaux.

Penny felt her senses flooding back into her own body as she emerged from the dream.
NO! This isn’t enough!

With as much strength as she could muster, she willed the light to return and another memory to flood into her eyes. Images shot out at her through black smoke. Flashes of shining teeth, wretched wails and waves of ripping agony blazed past Penny’s eyes in hot explosions, overloading her brain with bursts of terror as an unbearable pain erupted in her right eye. Recoiling, she wrenched her hand away from Deimos, desperate for it all to stop and gasping for air. Deimos let out a pinched yell and fell off his chair.

Valentine gasped and leapt up from her seat while Phobos grasped his brother’s arm. Glances and whispers began blossoming all around. Penny rose from her seat and Valentine shot a fiery green glance in her direction. In that instant Penny realized with a start why she looked familiar―the dramatic posters from outside the theater had Valentine’s face plastered all over them. Their connected gaze seemed to last an eternity as Penny stood paralyzed, until with a great surge of effort she broke eye contact, keeping her face down as she made her getaway. She pushed down the aisle, leaving a trail of affronted grumbles. Seeing her paper-white complexion and shaking limbs, Hector rose to help Penny keep her balance.

“We need to get out of here. Now,” she whispered, and that was enough for Hector to spring into action. He gestured to Simon, already guiding Penny out of the aisle and toward the staircases, holding her by the elbow the entire way. A sense of safety and relief floated in her dizzy head as she felt Simon and Hector nearby, leading her down halls and away from danger. When they burst out into the brisk night air, the muffled echoes of noise from the coliseum rumpled the otherwise quiet night.

Situated a safe distance away on a bench, Penny felt clear-headed enough to relate what she had done and launched into a detailed account without stopping for air. Hector was just as upset as she knew he would be.

“What in the
world
possessed you to do something as
air-headed―
” Hector seethed, his composure angry and fear in his eyes. “This is why I don’t drink!”

“It wasn’t the wine, I had to do it! I’ve been searching this whole time for answers and now fate serves them up to me on a silver plate! I couldn’t let that chance go by!” Penny defended.

Hector sighed with frustration. “Penelope…” he said, more gentle now, but it somehow made her twice as depressed.

“I was just trying to―” she sputtered. Her heart sunk even lower as she thought about her failed attempt to prove herself something more than a coward. It seemed so foolish in retrospect. “I don’t know.” They fell into silence, each of their minds restless with thought and worry.

“Did you find out anything at
all?
” Simon asked with a trace of hope. Penny looked back and forth between the two of them. The gravity of what she was about to say already weighed on her.

“Brace yourselves…”

S
imon was horrorstruck.

“You’re―you’re absolutely certain?” he sputtered, caught somewhere between bewilderment and denial. Hector looked troubled as Penny nodded. They’d made their way back to the inn while Penny relayed the stolen memory in a hushed voice. Though they now sat safely in their room, the comfort and coziness of the place had gone.